Three academics-cum-researchers from UTAR were ranked among the top 2% of scientists in the world by Stanford University, USA. The researchers were Emeritus Prof Dr Boo Nem Yun @ Mooi Nam Ying from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Assoc Prof Ts Dr Bernard Saw Lip Huat and Dr Pang Yean Lin from the Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science.

Prof Boo was ranked for her research publication citation for the subject of pediatrics under the subfields of general and internal medicine for the year 2019, and life time contribution (as career scientist) in pediatrics research up to the year 2020. She enthused, “I feel honoured to be ranked among the top 2% of scientists in the subject of Pediatrics in the world. I hope that this recognition will help me and my collaborators to obtain research grants more smoothly in the future for our research on the care of newborn babies, particularly jaundice diseases in Malaysian newborns, which has always been my main area of interest and research all these past years.”

Dr Saw was ranked for his research publication citation for the subject of energy under the subfields of mechanical engineering and transports for the year 2019. He said, “I am pleased and honoured to be featured in the list of top 2% scientists by Stanford University. A very special thanks to my supervisors, collaborators, colleagues and research funding supporters from UTAR and Malaysia government—Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and Ministry of Higher Education for guiding and motivating me on the path to success.” He added, “I hope that this ranking will help to attract more research funding to the university especially on the energy related research work. I will continue to work hard and produce impactful research output that will benefit the larger community.”

Last but not the least, Dr Pang was selected for her research publication citation for the subject of general physics and energy for the year 2019. “I am deeply pleased and honoured to receive this prestigious ranking from the Stanford University - top 2% of scientists in 2019 for my subfields. The ranking indeed proved the contribution of research work that my research team and I have done to the scientific community. I wish to thank all funding sources especially UTAR and the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia for the financial support given. Thank you to all my colleagues, collaborators, supervisor, mentor and family members for your endless support and encouragement.” She added, “My research is focused on the utilisation of biomass as an environmental catalyst, which can help to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal No. 7 to provide clean and renewable energy to all without compromising the environment. This ranking may also increase UTAR’s reputation and it may also lead to more possible collaborations with other universities and industry partners to obtain external funding and support the relevant research work.”

Stanford University has listed over 150,000 scientists, whose published research manuscripts have accelerated progress in their respective fields. The scientists have been selected based on Scopus (abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature) that ranks journals and gives a citation index. It is also ranked on the basis of standardised citation indications which include information on the number of citations, H-Index, co-authorship and a composite indicator of each scientist. The results have been published in PLOS Biology and have been classified into 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields in the report.